Competing in a Whovian Running Club Racery Event, Supporting the Charity e-NABLE

This is the third Racery event I've taken part in.  The first two were a house competition with the Hogwarts Running Club.  This Racery event is with the sister club the Whovian Running Club, for those the love Dr. Who, and instead of being between teams--Villains, Time Lords, Companions (my team)--everyone from each team chose a charity to compete with.  Each charity selected was a focused charity for a past medal, and this event is a chance to earn more money for these charities: Patriot Paws, Oceans Initiative, Magic Wheelchair, e-NABLE, and SOS Galgos.  All great charities.

I love the fact that the focus is directly on the charities and not between Whovian teams.

Between the teams I ended up signing up with e-NABLE, though I almost committed to Magic Wheelchair.  Both Fantastic.  But one I had to choose.  Doing both wasn't allowed.  In the end the innovation of e-NABLE and it's global volunteers, using 3D at home printing technology to create super affordable prosthetic limbs lured me to the team.  What a fantastic use of modern possibilities, taking the problem of expensive, unattainable prosthetics, and sharing plans in an open source format, helping many people.

So far our team is in fourth place.  A little discouraging.  I only did 2 1/2 miles yesterday due to having dance practice, but I did a 5k this morning and another 5k this evening.  It was so hard motivating myself this evening, as I wanting to crash on the couch and TV binge, but the thought of getting miles for the charity got me moving.  Tomorrow I hope to spread out a half-marathon worth of miles throughout the day.  We'll see how that goes!!  Haven't walked that many miles in a single day in a super long time.

And BTW, new episodes of Dr. Who start up again on BBC America on October 7th.

I can't wait!!!

The Gryffs & The Hares: A Quidditch Story, or, in other words, How A Virtual Running Club Got Me to Walk 59 Miles in a Week

I've talked about the Hogwarts Running Club a few times on this blog.  Last week we started a Quidditch match between the four houses.  Three groups of 75 people each in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.  Though we were all racing at the same time, each of the 12 teams was in a race against just one of the teams in another house.

I was put in the GryffinRoar team against Luna's Hare Raisers.

Each of the individual races amounted to a single win.  If two houses got the same amount of wins, the house with the fastest combined time won the tie.

 GryffinRoar and Luna Hare Raisers were very evenly matched.  Through all of last week we were constantly switching places.  It was pretty exciting, actually.

(Okay, a momentary interlude.  I'm listening to a Spotify station, Discovery Weekly, and this song entitled "3000 Miles" by Emblem3 is playing, and it seriously made me laugh because the distance each team had to travel was 3,343 something miles or so.)

The Eagles won their match against the Snakes.  The Badgers won their match against the Eagles.  It looked like the Snakes would win against our Gryffindor team.  A lot of these matches ended late last week.

Still, back and forth us Gryffs and Hares went.  There was serious hope, and a good chance, that we could win, but it was a nail biter, major time.

Twice, close to midnight, I was walking to get in miles.

Saturday was a hard day.  I hit a MAJOR wall.  With some of the teams finishing it looked like we lost our chance at an overall first.  The snakes were rooting for us to win our match against the Hares, but the snarky/cynical side of me concluded that it was because if we won our match, it would guarantee the Snakes winning the Quidditch cup.  Someone mentioned on the GryffinRoar forum that, whether or not there's self interest involved in them cheering us on, they're showing us true spirit, #OneHRC spirit, or something like that.  Then, in the back of my mind, I was all like, "Well, if it's in the spirit of #OneHRC the snakes would equally be cheering for the Hares, which from my knowledge isn't happening."  Could be wrong.  Suddenly I was feeling a little used and contemplated the idea that losing and pushing the Claws to an overall win wouldn't be a bad thing.  Dark moment this was.  Thankfully I snapped out of it, after a couple hours . . .

I realized, no matter who won overall, I needed to give it my all regardless, no regrets.  If we lost it wasn't because we didn't try.

We did try.

And we pushed hard.

Saturday night I went to bed, having walked 10 miles that day, with our Gryff team 30 miles ahead of the Hares.  Sunday morning I woke up and the Hares were 150 or so miles ahead of us.  Then 200 miles ahead.  Then 300 miles.  And so on.  It didn't matter how much we worked we just couldn't make up the distance.  And while I was at church the Hares crossed the finish line in Orlando.

We were crushed.  I was crushed.

Then we pushed just to finish.

When I signed up I promised 7 miles a week, a mile a day.  Last Monday morning was when we crossed the finish line, 7 days from starting, and I did a total of 59.4 miles, just short of 60 miles, walking on the treadmill and around the house, showing proof by using the Nike+ Running Club app by posting screen shots after each walk to my personal thread.

I'm still amazed I walked that far.

 Throughout the race it was fun seeing where my walks brought the team.

 Sometimes I wrote a little something when posting to Racery.

 The final stretch!

 Where I ranked, out of 900, after posting my final miles.

Now I'm sitting at #200.

The overall rankings, though there's a Hufflepuff team still working to finish, and we're all cheering them on, helping them not give up.

In the last few hours today the last two Gryffindor teams, Godric's Pride and Mane Attraction, crossed the finish line.  These last few days our house adopted the hashtag #OnePride.  Pretty much for most of the race our three teams stayed close together, showing how evenly balanced we made the teams, but also a symbol of our solidarity.

It is disappointing our team lost, but in a way we didn't lose because we pushed ourselves and didn't give up.  I didn't think I could get so many miles.  I was unsure about signing up, not wanting to let the team down.  For health reasons I've never talked about I can't run, so I walked all my miles, averaging 20 minutes a mile.  A lot of time!  Pretty much this was all my free time last week.

And I'm sore allover.  A good sore.

And, for the record, Epsom salt baths are pretty awesome.

March 2017 J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World by LootCrate subscription box review

This is the third box in the new J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World by LootCrate, featuring 5-7 exclusive and officially licensed items in each box, delivering right to your front door the magic of the Wizarding World from Harry Potter to Fantastic Beasts and everything in between.
 

The subscription is bi-monthly, coming every other month, which means the next box will be delivered in May.  The cost is $34.99 per box plus $5 shipping.

This month is "Hogwarts House Pride"!!

Finally!

When you sign up for Lootcrate you choose a house.  For this box there was a Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor variation.  I got the Gryff box and I really like the design of the lion.  I feel bad for Ravenclaw!  Thanks to the movies they never catch a break.  Those who love the books will never get their blue/bronze colors with an eagle.  They would freak if they did, those nerds! :P  Both my sister-in-laws are Ravenclaw, and I made a blue/bronze scarf and gave one to Krista, who likes to wear the Ravenclaw sweater from time to time.  She loved the scarf and actually wore it around town.  For special events I love wearing the Gryffindor scarf I made.  You're not a true fan until you've made a scarf.

Oh, and another thing, Lootcrate gives elusive box items in their subscription boxes, and this month all five items are exclusives, which is really cool.  No Funko Pop!  Ha!

 Hogwarts Raglan T-Shirt

I LOVE this shirt!  Seriously, I do.  I'm wearing it now and I don't plan on taking it off.  I love the soft muted colors and the overall design of each house.

 Sorting Hat Pin

This is a small and simple pin, but I like the texture.  For fun I do virtual races for charity and get medals, and I like to put pins on them.  One pin = 50 miles walked/ran on the medal ribbon.  I have Hogwarts medals thanks to the Hogwarts Running Club, so I'm going to walk an extra 50 miles and put this on one of them.

Hogwarts Express Lanyard

Because you never know when you're going to ride the Hogwarts express or visit a theme park.  I love the metal Hogwarts crest, and I even have a ticket to ride the train to Hogwarts.  How cool is that?

Hogwarts House Duffle Bag

This is smaller than I thought it would be, but it's the perfect size for dance class.  If you go to the gym this would be a good gym bag.  Just the right size for my ghillies, ballet shoes for when I want to preserve my ghillies (not cheap), couple extra knee high socks, towel and water bottle.

Hogwarts House Beanie

So cool.  Love the style.

"Gryffindor" is wrapped all the way around.

It's getting warmer now, so this will wait till next Fall, but I like it.

Here's the information that came with the box.

So there you have it!  Hogwarts House Pride, Gryffindor style.

Next month's theme is Dark Magic.  I wasn't going to get the box, I need to save my money, but May is my birthday month, and I'm curious.  This is a good birthday present to myself, right?  Ah!  From some hints and spoilers I think there's going to be a Percival Graves item in it, hmmm, we'll see.

How Much Money Each Charity Makes On the Charity Miles App

Thanks to the Hogwarts Running Club I started using Charity Miles, an app that you can download and use on Androids and iOS.  It encourages me to exercise while earning money for charity, thanks to corporate sponsors.  (And earning Gryffindor house points with team #hrcgryffinroar16 simply a bonus).

The site use to state that every running/walking mile was worth $0.25, so 4 miles was a dollar.  The site no longer states this.  Once upon a time the Charity Miles app, CM for sort, would state how much you earned for your chosen charity after your race/run/walk, immediately updating how much that charity earned. The app no longer does this as well, and instead updates at the end of each day the cumulative total earned through combined users.  All we see is how many miles we've walked/ran that day with no idea how much money we actually helped earn towards our charity of choice.

Money for each charity is still being earned, but I was curious how much money each charity was earning, as some charities have only a few thousand dollars earned while others a couple hundred thousand.  This disparity comes from a variety of reasons: charity popularity, where a charity is listed on the charity list, and how long the charity has been on the app, as new charities are added every so often.

Below is a list of the charities on Charity Miles.  The order corresponds to the order found on the Android app, instead of alphabetical.  The first gross is the amount of money earned on September 4 around 9:30 PM MST, 2016.  The second gross is the amount earned on September 14 around 3:00 PM MST.  I then divided the increase amount by 10 to get the daily average.

(The links take you to the main website for each charity if you wish to learn more).

1. National Park Foundation. $14,097. Ten Days Later = $15,028 ($931 increase)($93.10 Daily Average).

2. ALS Association. $1,912. Ten Days Later $2,428. ($516 increase) ($51.60 Daily Average).

3. Habitat For Humanity. $61,142. Ten Days Later $61,639. ($497 increase) ($49.70 Daily Average).

4. American Diabetes Association. $2,343. Ten Days Later $2,343 ($0 increase) ($0 Daily Ave.) (Back in April their total was also $2,343.  No increase in 5 months?  Really!!??  This can't be right.)

5. Charity: Water. $22,902. Ten Days Later $23,577. ($675 increase) ($67.50 Daily Average).

6. ASPCA. $164,029. Ten Days Later $165,392. ($1,363 increase) ($136.3 Daily Average).

7. Stand Up To Cancer. $226,599. Ten Days Later $228,009 ($1,410 increase) ($141 Daily Average).

8. National Multiple Sclerosis Society. $2,519. Ten Days Later $2,911. ($392 increase) ($29.2 Daily Average).

9. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. $107,565. Ten Days Later $108,047. ($482 increase) ($48.2 Daily Average).

10. Save the Children. $16,448. Ten Days Later $16,756. ($308 increase) ($30.8 Daily Average).

11. Feeding America. $164,922. Ten Days Later $165,798. ($876 Increase) ($87.60 Daily Average).

12. World Wildlife Fund. $105,110. Ten Days Later $105,528. ($418 Increase) ($41.80 Daily Average).

13. Shot@Life. $18,057. Ten Days Later $18,181. ($124 Increase) ($12.40 Daily Average).

14. The Michael J. Fox Foundation. $99,393. Ten Days Later $99,788. ($395 Increase) ($39.50 Daily Average).

15. Alzheimer's Association. $95,133. Ten Days Later $95,914. ($781 Increase) ($78.10 Daily Average).

16. (RED). $26,320. Ten Days Later $26,414. ($94 Increase) ($9.40 Daily Average).

17. Operation Smile. $19,378. Ten Days Later $19,587. ($209 Increase) ($20.90 Daily Average).

18. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. $53,105. Ten Days Later $53,970. ($865 Increase) ($86.50 Daily Average).

19. Sight For Kids. $1,934. Ten Days Later $2,037. ($103 Increase) ($10.30 Daily Average).

20. Autism Speaks. $136,729. Ten Days Later $137,105. ($376 Increase) ($37.60 Daily Average).

21. Team Red, While & Blue. $144,873. Ten Days Later $145,651. ($778 Increase) ($77.80 Daily Average).

22. Every Mother Counts. $46,755. Ten Days Later $46,924. ($169 Increase) ($16.90 Daily Average).

23. The Partnership For A Healthier America. $22,326. Ten Days Later $22,377 ($51 Increase) ($5.10 Daily Average).

24. Girls On The Run. $44,288. Ten Days Later $44,526. ($238 Increase) ($23.80 Daily Average).

25. DoSomething.Org. $7,633. Ten Days Later $7,659. ($26 Increase) ($2.60 Daily Average).

26. Wounded Warrior Project. $284,783. Ten Days Later $285,347. ($564 Increase) ($56.40 Daily Average).

27. The Nature Conservancy. $52, 678. Ten Days Later $52,848. ($170 Increase) ($17 Daily Average).

28. The World Food Programme. $90,065. 10 Days Later $90,174 ($109 Increase) ($10.90 Daily Average).

29. Pencils of Promise. $29,670. Ten Days Later $29,774. ($104 Increase) ($10.40 Daily Average).

30. Special Olympics. $31,843. Ten Days Later $31,995. ($152 Increase) ($15.2 Daily Average).

31. Girl Up. $38,807. Ten Days Later $38,914. ($107 Increase) ($10.70 Daily Average).

32. Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. $36,302. Ten Days Later $36,491. ($189 Increase) ($18.90 Daily Average).

33. Team For Kids. $7,286. Ten Days Later $7,317. ($31 Increase) ($3.10 Daily Average).

34. She's The First. $21,894. Ten Days Later $22,052. ($158 Increase) ($15.80 Daily Average).

35. Soles4Souls. $17,728. Ten Days Later $17,766. ($38 Increase) ($3.8 Daily Average).

36. Nothing But Nets. $13,526. Ten Days Later $13,588. ($62 Increase) ($6.20 Daily Average).

37. Back On My Feet. $23,912. Ten Days Later $24,027. ($115 Increase) ($11.50 Daily Average).

38. Achilles International. $9,785. Ten Days Later $9,828. ($43 Increase) ($4.30 Daily Average).

39. The Ironman Foundation. $9,553. Ten Days Later $9,597 ($44 Increase) ($4.40 Daily Average).

40. Vision Spring. $5,766. Ten Days Later $5,805. ($39 Increase) ($3.90 Daily Average).

Final thoughts.

First, what the freak is up with American Diabetes Association!!!!????  I'm walking 6 miles for them tomorrow to see if they go up a dollar, because staying the same for four months is ridiculous.

Second, it's obvious that those on the top of the list do better than those on the bottom.

Third, I noticed--because I took screen shots--that in the last 10 days Charity Miles mixed up the order of the top 10 charities, but the bottom 30 charities stayed in the SAME EXACT ORDER.

And Fourth, Vision Spring is always at the bottom, and has been since I started using Charity Miles.

Overall the numbers are interesting.

Trying Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer

 Last Sunday, July 31st, was Harry Potter's birthday, and to celebrate I tried Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer.  I honestly stumbled upon it last Saturday when I was visiting Provo Riverwoods, after seeing the movie Cafe Society at Wynnsong, catching Pokemon, and looking at art in Zion's Mercantile.  Before leaving the outdoor mall I walked into Blickenstaff's, a fun toy store filled with toys new and vintage, board games, candy from around the World, and old fashioned sodas.

In the soda fridge I spotted the Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer, non-alcoholic, naturally, and got quite excited.  Quite a few members of the Hogwarts Running Club have posted photographs of the drink, excited that they've found it locally.  I've never been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Shameful, right?  When I went to Disney World last June I calculated how much tickets and taxi would cost to make it possible for my Mom and I to visit.  Considering we would want to visit both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade it would cost $400+ to make that happen for just one day, and my Mom and I were trying to keep the trip affordable.  Someday I'll make it there to try real Butterbeer, but for now there are home recipes and Flying Cauldron.

I really liked the drink.  There was a slight aftertaste due to the stevia, but other than that it was quite tasty, the butterscotch strong.  My sister-in-law Lindsay loved it.  She drank it right down.

There's a recommended Giggle Potion recipe where you can add ice-cream to get that creamy foaming affect, like a root beer float.  That would have been really good!

From their website: "Since 1374, the Flying Cauldron has been making this magical brew for under aged wizards and wizards who are young at heart at their brew pub in Hogsbreath England . The recipe has changed little over the centuries. It has the perfect combination of spells and quality natural ingredients. It continues to be prized for its creamy vanilla and butterscotch flavors."

The bottle is super cute.

If you can't find it locally you can buy Flying Cauldron on the REED'S website.

Virtual Races, Hogwarts Running Club, Charity Miles, and Charity Accountability

Last month I completed the 50 mile endurance challenge by Races For Awareness supporting colon cancer.  It was a virtual run, which means I registered for the "race" online, and then completed the miles on my own time, broken up over several days.  I actually received the medal before completing the miles, along with a little memo pad and a fruit & veggie strip.

 And I already ordered and received the Encore Performance pins for April and May, in which I am striving to walk/run another 50 miles each month.  It's nice because I can pin these to my medal ribbon without buying another medal.

There's also a 100 miles challenge supporting the Epilepsy Foundation.

And a brand new 200 miles challenge supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

 I'm aiming for the 100 mile challenge in June and 200 challenge in July.

Maybe this all seems a little silly.  Log on, pay $20-$35 depending on the race, and receive a medal!  Essentially it's a participation award, but a participation award I bought for outright, and it's supporting a charity, too.  And they're really cool.

Also, I like the motivation.  I really struggle with motivation, and the races that I've done have kept me on track, though I have faltered a little after the end of last month.

 I first found out about virtual runs through FaceBook advertisements.  The first time I've clicked on an add and bought what they were selling.  It was an advertisement for Make Yes! Happen The Race to Oz.  It was a cool medal, but the funny thing is I haven't done it yet.  I was distracted by The Watson Clinic Digital Dash 2016, because the medal was an Eiffel Tower, and I liked how it was supporting a charity.  (The main Make Yes Happen races don't support charities.  If a charity isn't mentioned, there isn't one.)  But other groups can use this website to create races to support whatever charity they are raising funds for.

That's how I found Geek'd Out Running Club, because they were hosting the Baker Street Bound on Make Yes Happen, with a Sherlock Holmes theme, supporting Badges Supporting Fallen Officers Families (Fallen).

And it was through the Geek'd Out Running Club FaceBook page that I found out about The Hogwarts Running Club.  Can I express right now how much I love the Hogwarts Running Club?!  The Facebook groups are so encouraging, and there are so many good people in this club.  The medals are fun, currently they're hosting The Umbridge Run supporting My Stuff Bags.

So far The Hogwarts Running Club has raised $420,000 in just the first two years.

And it's thanks to this club that I found out about Charity Miles.  We use Charity Miles to earn extra money for our personal charity of choice, and depending on which Hogwarts house you claim, I'm a Gryffindor and belong to that team, the miles you run/walk/bike go towards house points.

You download the Charity Miles app to either your iPhone or Android.  The downside is that you must wear the phone either in a purse, by holding, or another method for the miles to count.  Outdoor Walk/Run tracks via GPS.  Indoor Walk/Run goes off of movement, so if you set the phone on top of the treadmill it's not going to do anything, you must wear it in a way so that it can count each step.  Both Walk/Run modes pay out $0.25 a mile per charity.  Outdoor Bike tracks by GPS, but pays $0.10 per mile.  The app is free to use (though it does ask for a lot of permissions, more then I'm typically comfortable giving), and the money is paid through corporate sponsors.

Below is a list of all the charities you can walk for in the charity miles app.

First listed is the charity itself, followed by the amount of money the charity has raised this term from the app.  A term lasts June through May, and this term ends May 31st.  Ever since the big blow up with Wounded Warrior Project, I've been looking into charity accountability sites, watchdog groups, rating how the donations and funds are being used by the charity.  When I donate I want my money, and miles, to go to the actual cause I'm supporting.  So for each charity I used BBB Give.org, Charity Navigation, and Charity Watch to find the ratings.  When I write "can't find" it means the charity hasn't been evaluated by the site, or it could be under another name and I just couldn't find it.

Stand Up To Cancer: $53,466.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 91.93/100. Charity Watch: A-

American Diabetes Association: $2,343.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 80.29/100 Charity Watch: No information

ASPCA: $33,977. BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 82.99/100 Charity Watch: No Information.

Habitat For Humanity: $10,496.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 74.36/100 Charity Watch: B+

Operation Smile: $13,034.  BBB Give.org: Standards Not Met.  Charity Navigator: Can't Find. Charity Watch: No information.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: $19,104.  BBB Give.org: Couldn't find. Charity Navigator: 84.09/100. Charity Watch: Can't find.

Girl Up:  $5,902.  BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: Can't find. Charity Watch: Can't find.

Alzheimer's Association: $34,786.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 90.60/100. Charity Watch: No information.

Save the Children: $12,307.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 90.29/100. Charity Watch: A

Feeding America: $18,728.  BBB Give.org:  Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: Can't find. Charity Watch: No information.

World Wildlife Fund: $15,157.  BBB Give.org: Accredited Charity, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 89.43/100. Charity Watch: no information.

Shot@Life: $3,129.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

charity: water: $15,624.  BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 96.98/100.  Charity Watch: A

The Michael J. Fox Foundation: $15,956.  BBB Give.org:  Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 97.47/100. Charity Watch: A

(RED): $2,713.  BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: Can't find. Charity Watch: Can't find.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: $26,810.  BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 88.61/100 Charity Watch: No information.

Autism Speaks: $14,692.  BBB Give.org:  Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 74.38/100. Charity Watch: no information.

Team Red, White & Blue: $35,101. BBB Give.org: Did not disclose. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Every Mother Counts: $6,475. BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Girls On The Run: $12,564. BBB Give.org: Accredited. Charity Navigator: 84.50/100. Charity Watch: Can't find.

DoSomething.Org: $1,250. BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 97.09/100. Charity Watch: Can't find.

Wounded Warrior Project: $47,452.  BBB Give.org: Review In Progress. Charity Navigator: 84.52/100. Charity Watch: C

The Nature Conservancy: $6,592.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: 80.46/100. Charity Watch: can't find.

The World Food Programme: $5,297.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Pencils of Promise: $3,977.  BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Special Olympics: $5,752. BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: 86.57/100. Charity Watch: no information.

National Park Foundation: $5,609.  BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: Can't Find. Charity Watch: No information.

Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America: $6,732.  BBB Give.org: Accredited, meets standards. Charity Navigator: 91.63/100. Charity Watch: A-

Team for Kids: $1,072.  BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: Can't find. Charity Watch: Can't find.

She's The First: $4,125.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Soles4Souls: $1,743.  BBB Give.org: Unable to Verify. Charity Navigator: 85.60/100. Charity Watch: can't find.

Nothing But Nets: $1,464.  BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: Can't find. Charity Watch: Can't find.

Back On My Feet: $4,357.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

The Partnership For A Healthier America: $1,406.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Achilles International: $1,519.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: 83.04/100. Charity Watch: can't find.

The Ironman Foundation: $1,405.  BBB Give.org: can't find. Charity Navigator: can't find. Charity Watch: can't find.

Vision Spring: $1,392.  BBB Give.org: Can't find. Charity Navigator: 96.40/100. Charity Watch: can't find.

There's 37 total charities on the charity miles app.

(celebrate life virtual race and Watson Clinic Digital Dash 2016)

Oh course, virtual races need to be transparent as well.

Hogwarts Running Club gives $21 per medal towards the charity, which is a great percentage.

Races for Awareness states on their page that: "We strive to give the most to charities and try to keep the cost of the race fee low at the same time. Currently 80-100% of net proceeds goes directly to the charity. At the very least $8.00 is donated. Most of our races donate $10 per race fee. It’s dependent on the cost of the medal. Some of our virtual races 100% of net proceeds are donated. Please check the individual race page for details."  And they take screen shots of every payment towards charity they make and post the images online.

Make Yes! Happen isn't transparent.  Most of their races don't support charities and are there for the sport of virtual races.  Some of the medals are pretty cool.  Those that are for charity are individual groups that host races on the site.

Virtual Strides is another virtual race site that supports charities.  I haven't done one of their races yet, but they're very transparent.  Under their answer page: "Great question. Unfortunately, there are plenty of unethical individuals in this world who say they are raising funds for charity but never actually make the promised donation. We are not like those individuals. We believe in complete transparency in this regard and post receipts from all of our donations and scans of any acknowledgement letters we receive on our Charities page."

There's many other sites, but these are the ones I'm doing for now.

Also, when a race has an option for how many miles you can walk/run for each race, I'm choosing the highest amount of miles.  For the Paris medal on the left there were options for a 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon.  I choose the full marathon spread out over several days, of course.

So if you like running or walking virtual races could be a fun way to spice up your workouts.  And if you don't want to pay for a medal, but still want to help charities, there's always the charity mile app which is free.